St. Landry democrat., 1887-06-18
SUMNER BREAKFASTS.
How the Housewife Can Give a Good Be-
ginning to the Day.
BY JENNY JUNE.
IC0pyrfghted, 1Ss7.I

[Copyrfghted 1ss7.I
I often pity men because they are so de
pendent on the women of their household
or clearinghouse for their food, for then
comforts, for the realization of the idea which
every one must form of what he would like
to eat, the way he would like it to be served
the aid to his health and development which
he would receive from proper provision TO,
his body and tired nervous forces.
Perhaps if he got it at all just right he
would fail to appreciate it, and would still
find something to grumble about something
to sigh for-but in the general way he does
not find much attention paid to the helpful
influences of daily life, and instead of the
growl for which he receives the credit, the
general tendency of the male animal is to
accept the inevitable, and let it work out
his daily fare as best it can. Lifeis too short
busy ife-and cares too many and Cypress
i've for men to trouble themselves with the
details which belong to women, and in the
meantime their previous experience may
have been such as to prevent them from
knowing what they miss.
The shortcomings, it must be promised, do
not always arise from want of will; much
more frequently they are the result of want
ofhabit and early training The conscientious
housekeeper usually expends herself upon
quantity or number of edibles without dis
elimination, contrast or variety. The articles
composing the bill of fare are almost the same
the whole year round. Particularly is this
the case with the breakfast the most beauti-
full meal of the day-that which opens it with
blessing and benediction, which prepares
each member of the family for the duties and
pleasures to be performed and enjoyed, if it
fulflls its function, but which, alas! often
send them out unrefreshed, unsatisfed, wish
ing there was some place in this world where
good air, healthful food and bright, cheer
full spirit of cleanliness and contentment
could be found. Breakfast, more than any
other meal, needs the pervading intelligence
of the mistress of the house. As warm
weather approaches appetites naturally flag
o certain lasstude and inertia prevails,
which is usually quickened into disgust and
exhaustion by the lack of attention to house
hold refnements and the simplest
dictates of sanitary law. The table
cloth, under the direction of the servant, is
not too clean, the eggs are hard, or cold, or
fried in grease; the bread is uninviting the
coffee bad, but strong to bitterness; the meat
tough and the fried potatoes, which are
always there, look even more wretched and
dyspeptic than usual. Somebody throws the
window wide open on the stuffy, close room
as the family sit down to breakfast, so that
noise and dust or glare flow in, and each one
brings special and individualized subject of
complaint, and all, after talking and try
ing every separate article upon the table,
leave them in mass upon their plates in
company with quantity of uneaten butter.
The food is wasted-it is not eaten-yet all
go away unsatisfed-unfit for hard work
and more ready to do unwise things than if
good air, good food and cheerful companion
ship had braced them up and furnished the
necessary powers of resistance.
The mistress of the house, on the other
hand-left at home-sees the unused food
swept away to the kitchen to be transferred
10 the slop-pail, and complains bitterly of the
wastefulness and want of appreciation of
what she provides in reality. She does
nothing toward its supply, and uses neither
brain nor energy in its proper preparation
Dr. distribution. If a special article is re-
1uired it is special grievance and special
virtuein her to supply it. This absence of
often more in seeming than
Intention or reality, this faculty for making
instead Of taking trouble, effectually pre-
rents individual expression of opinion or
preference; indeed, any such would be con-
idered q reflection upon her methods and
IN afront not to be forgiven. In this way
! small tyranny grows out of incompetency,
which perpetuates it and the evils for which
t is responsible.
It is not any wonder that men sometimes
Iuote ''my mother Each one of us has
snown some household, generally in the past,
ather than the present tense, which realized
n true sense the conditions of home to
he inmates. It may have been in the city, |
{ may have been in the country, but wher-
yer it was, it had an industrious, painstak-
ng, intelligent woman at the head of it, and
me of her specialties was early rising, and
be supervision of a pleasant and appetizing
reakfast table. I am sure Of this because it !
Vould be the instinct of areally good house
.eeper, and also because no fragrant impress
ion of her good deeds would remain if they
ad not carried with them the freshness Of
be early morning.
1t is very frequently the case with city
nowadays that they clay them
elves out, . to use their own expression, on
inners. They have no appetite for break
ast themselves, and therefore feel no in